She stands up without saying a word and follows Cleamon. They walk around the corner and enter the secret underground lab through the hidden door.

“Let’s make the pact now so you can be free, however my offer from before still stands. You’re welcome to join our group, but as a comrade instead. I understand if you want to leave this place, however I’ll make it worth your time if you stay” Cleamon almost pleads to her.

“I’ll stay in this city for a while, however I can’t say anything about staying with your group. For now I just want to enjoy my freedom for a while” Yako says with a faint smile.

“Then let’s get started”

In order to complete the ritual, blood from both parties is needed. Cleamon makes a cut on his hand and Yako does the same. They join hands and Cleamon recites their promise.

“I hereby promise to set Yako free and will not impede on her freedom or help anyone else steal it away. I will return her orb as soon as the promise is made and will do everything to treasure the friendship” Cleamon says resolutely taking Yako by surprise.

“You…”

“Your turn” Cleamon says with a smile.

“I hereby promise to leave Gedour city and it’s inhabitants alone and won’t hurt them unless my own existence is in danger. I also promise to not cast any illusions on innocent people” Yako follows.

“I accept” they both say at the same time.

A bright light emits from their handshake as the blood of each individual takes place in the other as a guarantee. In the case someone breaks the promise, the blood will stop all mana flow and eventually the heart.

Cleamon reaches inside his spatial bracelet.

“Here this belongs to you, I wish you the best and be careful that you don’t get tricked again” Cleamon says giving the shining orb to Yako.

“…Finally… I can be free again” Yako’s eyes water as she holds the orb as if caressing it.

“… I’m sorry you had to go through that, if we would’ve met under different circumstances we could’ve been good friends” Cleamon says hugging Yako out of reflex.

“… I never thought I could trust a person again. Thank you for freeing me from that hell… I think I can finally move on with my life now…” Yako still lets her tears flow silently in happiness.

“Don’t worry about it, I just hope you can find love again. No-one deserves the treatment you got” Cleamon says as they part.

She wipes away her tears and gives the brightest smile he’s seen from her.

She moves in and kisses his cheek.

“Really thank you”

“Ah, before I forget. Take these, I made some of these by myself. I wanted to give you something you can call your own” Cleamon says handing her over a bracelet.

“Try it on!” he says a little bit excited.

“This is!? Can I really keep this?” her eyes sparkle as she looks through the insides of the bracelet.

Enough gold to last a year, her own armor, many different potions and plenty of weapons.

“Make sure you store your orb somewhere safe. If you want I can give you a special item that stores it and it can only be retrieved by yourself. I can implement it in your body so you will never lose it again” Cleamon says.

For a second her doubts come back, but she remembers the promise he made.

“Please” she says politely.

Using an incantation he uses a prepared orb, the size of a small marble, after which it embeds itself inside Yako’s chest.

“You can connect to it like you can do with the bracelet, however the space is very limited. You can just about store your orb in there” Cleamon says.

“Thanks” she says as she stored the orb with a relieved face.

“I’ll be staying for a while and have some fun in the city. I haven’t had time to relax since I got here” she says with a soft smile.

They head back for the others, but most of them already left for their rooms. The only ones that are still waiting for them to return are Lilia and Metztli.

“Congratulations on your freedom!” Lilia says with a smile while grabbing Yako’s hands.

“Huh!?” Yako’s face looks a bit shocked.

“Anyone can tell something great happened, this is the first time I’ve seen you smile so brightly. I don’t think there is anything that could do that for you besides getting your freedom back so I took a guess” Lilia says scratching her cheek.

‘No wonder she always saw through my plans even in my past life. He deductions are even beyond mine and her scheming is even better’ Cleamon thinks with a painful smile.

Lilia flashes her eyes over to him as if understanding his thoughts.

‘Woah scary’ Cleamon thinks.

The next hour Lilia tries to probe into Yako’s plans, but Yako refuses to clarify anything. Most of all she just looks forwards to making her own choices.

With Lilia giving up her attempts at prying information from Yako, they head towards their beds.

———————————————–

Time passes as all of them train intensely, eventually Cleamon has everyone learn a new skill and they get introduced to the training room two at a time.

Izbella keeps up her studies to learn different languages whilst training her skills in combat.

Lilia finally starts learning a new affinity type magic Lightning. Slowly she makes progress as her efficiency at controlling it becomes better.

Amara keeps up her work on creating items, eventually selling them and helping her father out at his blacksmith.

Homian starts working with Cleamon and following his example on creating more exotic potions and learning proper mana control.

Resyana, wanting to help Homian, learns about the many different ingredients and how to harvest them. The fire magic meanwhile, becomes more refined. Her wind magic however is still lacking.

Metztli grows even closer to Cleamon, she even advances on him from time to time, unable to control her urges. Cleamon usually deals with her in a similar way to before, by helping Metztli to regain her senses with his handy work.

Jenny gives up trying to get Cleamon’s attention whilst trying to sleep, she focuses more on her Magic Soul to try and keep up with the others. However since she’s too young Cleamon won’t let her use any magic yet. She’s had a few successes in her quest to get Cleamon’s attention and affection, resulting in her first kiss, after which she became even more active at trying to persuade him for more.

The sisters learn to properly control their transformations and with the help of Cleamon and Resyana they get a greater understanding on how fire magic works. They spend most of their time concentrating on getting their fire under control.

Yako comes and goes as she pleases, she’s be seen smiling more than once and sometimes joins them for dinner. In the shopping street she’s well known as the girl who eats a lot, she’s often found eating something new at a bench. As a way to repay Cleamon, she’s been hunting outside the city and bringing him materials of the monsters she’s killed. In that respect she’s like a cat bringing her owner a prey.

At school Cleamon continues to hold sparring matches and training sessions with the group of trainees, however since their training schedules are so different, Cleamon’s group end up being too strong to continue joining. As a result he’s holding separate sessions.

Almar and the king are back on their feet better than ever. Having discussed their further actions they resumed their daily duties whilst keeping an eye on the Myrtics family.

Slowly the members from the Gambrill family were woken up and explained what had happened to them. First were Izbella’s close family and soon others followed.

Some of the families spoke out in anger as to what was done to them, however the king personally explained the situation and the need for immediate action. Any damage done to the family grounds would be paid for by the royal family personally.

To prevent another attempt at something similar a few people were chosen as spies. One of the new elders appointed, Izbella’s father, was one of them.

Life continued on for nine months whilst nothing noteworthy happened.

Then Cleamon announced on a Friday morning.

“Tomorrow we’ll go to the place where I found the sisters. I want to test your strength and your fighting capabilities. After that we’ll leave for the Earth Realm, prepare as much as you need for this trip. This is also part of the test”.